It was meant to be a photo filled with happy childhood memories, but instead it tells the tragedy of a community torn apart by horrific child abuse.
Pictured is Class 4 Class 4 at St Alipius’ Christian Brothers School, Ballarat, 1973. In the second row from the front stands Philip Nagle, fourth from the right, with his head bowed.
Looking at the picture today it doesn’t bring a smile to his face, only sadness and anger as he claims that 12 of the 33 students pictured committed suicide because of the sexual and physical abuse that took place at the school.
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Philip Nagle (circled) claims that 12 of the 33 students in the photo committed suicide because of the sexual abuse at school
But Mr. Nagle believes what happened to his dead classmates will not be forgotten.
The 50-year-old was the first person called on Tuesday at the opening of the Royal Commission on Institutional Child Sex Abuse, a pedophile ring involving Catholic clergy in Ballarat in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
At the end of his statement, he asked for a minute’s silence to honor his 12 classmates. His only hope now is that more people will come forward about the heinous crimes at St. Alipius so that justice can still be done.
“If more of my classmates come forward, fewer of them will (in the future) commit suicide. Because the ones who don’t come forward are the ones who kill themselves. Twelve in my class have committed suicide,” Mr Nagle told Daily Mail Australia.
Mr Nagle said some did it indirectly after years of alcoholism and drug use because they couldn’t deal with what was being done to them.
Mr Nagle, 50, was the first person to be called at the opening of the Royal Commission on Institutional Child Sex Abuse on Tuesday
“Some of them didn’t even make it to 50, some didn’t even make it to 40. They reach a breaking point and can’t handle it anymore,” he says.
Some of Australia’s most notorious offenders, including Gerald Ridsdale, Robert Best and Edward Dowlan, were part of a pedophile ring operating at St Alipius’ and St Patrick’s Colleges.
Mr Nagle, 50, was sexually assaulted repeatedly by the disgraced Stephen Farrell, who was a Christian brother at the school.
“He was our teacher back then. Because Risdale and others were such serial killers, people like Farrell flew under the radar,” he told the Daily Mail Australia.
Gerald Ridsdale was part of a pedophile ring operating at St Alipius’ and St Patrick’s College
“Only three of Farrell’s victims have come forward – myself, my brother and one other victim. From this he has 10 convictions. But because people like Risdale and Best had a lot of victims who came forward and Farrell didn’t, he got off lightly.’
Farrell didn’t even go to jail. He was given a suspended sentence of two years and three months for his crimes.
“People like Ridsdale got a lot more because his offenses were so bad and more people came forward. But Farrell was also part of the pedophile ring,” says Mr. Nagle.
He knows of other of Farrell’s victims, but has been warned by police not to go victim-hunting and is not allowed to name them.
Ridsdale was jailed in 1994 for child molestation between 1967 and 1987 on pedophile charges
“I’ve spoken to some of them, but they’re not willing to do anything about it,” he says.
What he had to endure in St. Alipius is burned into his psyche. Nothing can erase the horrific ordeal he endured at the hands of Farrell.
“He was too strong for me. I was just a nine year old boy. He would just catch you alone, wrestle you down and sexually assault you,” Mr Nagle told Daily Mail Australia.
“You have to realize that we were just little kids and they were grown adults, so we didn’t stand a chance.
“They were supposed to be men of God in their black robes. At that time, priests and Christian brothers were held in higher esteem than their parents, they were above reproach.
This all happened over a period of 12 months. We were horrified. It ruined our lives.’
Gordon Hill told the inquest that he was taken to St Joseph’s Home in Ballarat in 1946 and was first molested by a priest when he was just five years old
He’s still devastated that Farrell didn’t go to jail and believes that suspended sentences for this type of crime are simply unacceptable.
His comments came as Gordon Hill, 72, told the inquest on Wednesday he was taken to St Joseph’s Home in Ballarat in 1946 when he was three years old and was first molested by a priest at a place aged five, at “The Horror Rooms”.
But Nagle’s fight for justice continues.
“I don’t know what the investigation will achieve unless they get some of these perpetrators to speak up, but I was very pleased with the process,” he says.
“In Ballarat they call us ‘survivors’. We come together as a group of survivors of this atrocity and try to help these other victims stay alive.’
